Changes.I've been looking over Sarah Steelman interview footage cut from the Republican Convention in Branson last year. I threw a softball, egging her to elaborate on the benefits of having a woman governor. In response to my question her face cringes - we've passed that barrier she tells me.
On Martin Luther King day last year - Barack Obama visited Martin Luther King's Church on the holiday last year. I didn't get to make this particular campaign stop but the transcript demonstrated a massive dialogue shift. Obama's message focused on a responsibility the black community needed to embrace regarding discrimination against gay citizens.
But, perhaps, the most compelling clip of the year identifying change was Gov. Mike Huckabee's choice of caucus speaker in rural Iowa. A black preacher took the floor - identity politics seemed to be an asset.
Perhaps, the most fascinating historical document I was able to get my hands on was Joseph Smiths campaign bid as General of an Illinois militia. Smith's platform was an end to slavery by 1845 and a movement to end the current United States prison system. Some of his vision, the end of debtor's prison in addition to the eventual end to slavery reached fruition sometime later.For Romney identity politics appears a curse - hey, he wears a different kind of underwear. I suppose it was for Smith too who was assasinated soon after his announcement.
Tupac writes before his death:
"Although it seems heaven sent, we ain't ready to see a black president."
In the video above, changes he elaborates on the low self esteem highly visible in the black community scripting. "Is life worth living or should I blast myself."
Rick Warren will deliver Obama's innagural address tomorrow with heavy criticism from gay rights activists and sympathizers for his endorsemnt of California's Proposition 8 whose passage denies marriage certificates to same-sex couples.
Warren's significance to American brand Christianity is significant - moving from the spiritual charismatics to pratical social structures to insitute focused activism. His book the "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" focuses on business structures and group success through a term he coined -" interdependence". The function of the church and Jesus as a political activist reformed the modern day church to a struture we see common today - small groups , preaching in context of modern society etc...
Change is in the air - there seems to be a lingering uncertainty and opening possibilities.
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